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Autism (especially “AuDHD”) rates have been rising for the same reason that ADHD, BPD and so on rates have been rising. It’s an easy way to get powerful stimulant drugs and extra time on exams (since it’s usually now combined with an ADHD diagnosis), and in the age of ultra-zealous HR it’s a get out of jail free card for someone who says something awkward at the company Christmas party. Plus, like the non-binary thing, it’s a way of gaining more of the vital currency of victimhood and accessing a ‘special’ identity category in a society that worships those things.
There is no reason to believe that real autism rates are rising much, and what little rise there is is probably due to older parents at time of conception. But let’s also be clear - 10 years ago most people you met who said they were autistic or had aspergers were actually autistic. Today you meet relatively socially well adjusted people all the time who say they’re autistic, when 20 years ago no psychiatrist would even remotely have considered giving them an autism or aspergers diagnosis.
Oooh, I think your right. The timeline matches up with the passage of the ADA (which requires extra time on exams for disabilities, among other things).
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I'm willing to believe that mild autism today presents more strongly because in the fifties if you were a weird kid who acted awkward and mildly rudely you got beaten until you stopped doing that.
I won't claim this would be an improvement over 'mildly autistic people get to be offensive in an awkward way'. But it would enable lots of very mildly autistic people to come off as normal.
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